Grim Pickings for Cinema & Home Entertainment this week…

16 May 2017

GRIM PICKINGS this week includes key dates to dismember with the long overdue (Australian) theatrical release of an actioner sequel that’s being touted superior to the original along with a heaping helping of genre fare on home entertainment!

In Cinemas

Thursday May 18thJOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2After a puzzling three month delay since its international theatrical release, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 finally enters Australian cinemas this Thursday, three weeks ahead of its US home entertainment release. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy Italian assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome where he squares off against some of the world’s deadliest killers in an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride that takes the non-stop action of the original to a whole new level.

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORDAdmittedly we were skeptical when we first heard that Guy Ritchie would be heading up a medieval fantasy epic but now that the bad reviews outweigh dollars at the US box office, we feel it’s a safe bet holding off for home entertainment to watch KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD. When the child Arthur’s father is murdered, Vortigern (Jude Law), Arthur’s uncle, seizes the crown. Robbed of his birthright and with no idea who he truly is, Arthur comes up the hard way in the back alleys of the city. But once he pulls the sword from the stone, his life is turned upside down and he is forced to acknowledge his true legacy…whether he likes it or not.

THE OSIRIS CHILD: SCIENCE FICTION VOLUME ONEAfter previewing around the country in a series of Q&A event screenings, the buzz is building for this first instalment in this new Aussie sci-fi saga from Shane Abbess, writer/director of INFINI. Set in the future in a time of interplanetary colonisation, Sy (Kellan Lutz), a mysterious drifter, meets Kane (Daniel MacPherson), a lieutenant working for an off-world military contractor, EXOR. The unlikely pair must work together to rescue Kane’s young daughter (Teagan Croft) and reach safety amid an impending global crisis which was brought on by EXOR itself. Teaming up with a pair of renegades (Luke Ford and Isabel Lucas), Kane and Sy clash with EXOR in an attempt to escape while battling the savage creatures that roam the barren planet.

Home Entertainment

Wednesday May 17thFROM A HOUSE ON WILLOW STREETFrom filmmaker Alastair Orr (INDIGENOUS, RANCID) comes a bloody tale of captive turned captor with a twist, starring Aussie genre starlet Sharni Vinson of YOU’RE NEXT & BAIT. Roguish kidnappers devise a plan to abduct the daughter of a wealthy diamond distributor. When they have her locked up in their hideout, they realize she’s been possessed by a sinister demon. The kidnappers are forced to bargain for their souls and deal with their personal demons as they appear in physical form inside the house. Don’t forget we’re running a competition where you can WIN 1 of 3 FROM A HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET Blu-ray courtesy of our friends at EAGLE ENTERTAINMENT!NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGETake BRAIN DEAD, toss in a little IT FOLLOWS then finish off with CABIN FEVER and you’ll come with a NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE, a gross-out comedy/horror that need be seen to be believed! Five teenage friends set out for the beach on their Spring Break vacation. Good times are cut short when one of the group, Carrie, contracts a deadly sexual transmitted disease during a bathroom break. When they stop for the night at an isolated motel, the real terror begins when the STD virus starts running rampant, turning those infected into the living dead. However, there’s more going on at the motel than meets the eye. A throwback to all of those 80’s horror comedies you spent hours browsing through at your local video store, NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE is gore-laden adventure full of off-colour jokes and gloriously violent kills. For your chance to WIN 1 of 3 Blu-ray of NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE, like this #GrimPickings Facebook post, tag a friend and email us at competitions@cultofmonster.com.au with your favourite gross-out horror movie and why!RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTERBased on Capcom’s hugely popular video game series RESIDENT EVIL comes the final instalment (sure sure, we’ll believe it when these films start making PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION kind of cash) in the most successful video game film franchise ever, RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER! Picking up immediately after the events in RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only survivor of what was meant to be humanity’s final stand against the undead. Now, she must return to where the nightmare began – The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.TROMAGryphon Entertainment are unleashing seven local hi-def debuts of TROMA titles on Blu-ray including the entire TOXIC AVENGER franchise, CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH 1 & 2 and TROMEO & JULIET, what’s more they’re direct ports of the US releases so every one of them is feature laden!THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEADDolph Lundgren goes head-to-head with Danny Trejo to see who can dish out the most DTV films in a year! Brian Barnes (Johnny Messner) wakes up in the desert wounded and with no memory and no idea why he’s surrounded by eight bodies, a van with four million in cash and a van full of cocaine. Brian is pursued by not only notorious drug lord Danny Perez (Danny Trejo) who desperately want his money back, and DEA Agent Rooker (Dolph Lundgren), but also a by the corrupt Sheriff Olson (Michael Pare) who will stop at nothing to get his hand on the new found fortune. On the run, Brian discovers the more he remembers the less he wants to know about who he really is.OCEANS RISINGWhen comes to climate change, look to The Asylum & SyFy for answers. A scientist builds a massive ark after his warnings of an Earth-destroying flood are ignored. But when it’s evident the disaster will occur, those who maligned the scientist now turn to him in desperation, boarding the ark and seeking his answers before the world drowns in a never ending sea.THE MUMMY’S GHOST & THE MUMMY’S CURSEThe first of two Universal Pictures’ double features to release this week marks the local high-definition debut of both 1942’s THE MUMMY’S GHOST & 1944’s THE MUMMY’S CURSE. THE MUMMY’S GHOST: An Egyptian priest travels to America in search of the bodies of an Egyptian princess and her living, mummified guardian, with consequences. THE MUMMY’S CURSE:In his last appearance, Lon Chaney, Jr. stars as on of the screen’s most memorable movie monsters; the mummy Kharis from ancient Egypt, who is tormented by his forbidden love for princess Ananka.THE MUMMY’S HAND & THE MUMMY’S TOMBThe second Universal Pictures’ double to drop this week is a pairing of 1940’s THE MUMMY’S HAND & 1942’s THE MUMMY’S TOMB, both making their high-def debuts locally too! THE MUMMY’S HAND: An expedition of American archaeologists, headed by Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Baby Jenson (Wallace Ford), travels to Egypt in search of the undiscovered tomb of the Princess Ananka. There they soon discover the clues that lead them to a 3000-year-old mummy, who is guarded by a sinister high priest (Eduardo Ciannelli). Reluctantly funded by a magician (Cecil Kellaway) and his beautiful daughter (Peggy Moran), the expedition has its hands full battling the mummy, who goes on a killing rampage during each full moon. THE MUMMY’S TOMB: The ancient Egypt Mummy, Kharis, is transported from his homeland with the high priest Mehemet (Turhan Bey) to wreak vengeance on the family who has defiled the sacred tomb of his beloved Princess Ananka.